Sarah Remond, An Outspoken Agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society

#Sarah Remond was born in 1824. She was an African-American abolitionist, lecturer and an agent of the American Anti-#Slavery Society. She was refused enrollment at an all-white school at a very young age while living in Salem, Massachusetts. When this happened, Remond’s family packed up and moved to Newport, Rhode Island, so she could attend a #Black private school. She was one of eight children of John Remond and Nancy Lenox. Her father was a free person of color who was brought in 1798 to Massachusetts.

Remond began protesting segregation at churches, theaters and many other places at the age of 16. She joined her brother Charles on his lecture circuit where he traveled throughout the country speaking against slavery and racism. When Remond traveled with her brother they would travel and often stay with friends through the country.

At age 30, Remond began lecturing for the American Anti-Slavery Society. Once while traveling she told an audience “if women knew the unspeakable horrors to which their sex was exposed on southern plantations” they would demand for the Black woman the protection and rights enjoyed by the white. In 1856, she published a letter in the Daily News protesting attacks on black people in the London press after an insurrection in Jamaica.

Remond was an exceptional speaker and fundraiser. She often described in full detail exactly what slaves endured as well as those who were free. She was soon invited to speak in Great Britain on anti-slavery. While in Britain, she took extensive classes at the Bedford College for women. She studied a wide variety of subjects. From England Remond went to Italy in 1866, where she started medical training and became a physician. She practiced medicine for nearly 20 years in Florence and married there. She never returned to the United States.